In a first for ESA and human spaceflight worldwide, ESA is looking for individual(s) who are psychologically, cognitively, technically and professionally qualified to be an astronaut, but have a physical disability that would normally prevent them from being selected due to the requirements imposed by the use of current space hardware.www.esa.int
The six-wheeled robot’s latest data since touching down yesterday include a hi-res image captured as the rover’s jetpack lowered it to the ground.mars.nasa.gov
Italy’s Mount Etna, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, has erupted twice in less than 48 hours, spewing a fountain of lava and ash into the sky. This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image has been processed to show the lava flow in bright red.www.esa.int
For Valentine’s Day, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Valentine Island in northern Western Australia.www.esa.int
BRUNSWICK, Maine (AP) — A Maine company that's developing a rocket to propel small satellites into space passed its first major test on Sunday. Brunswick-based bluShift Aerospace launched a...apnews.com
Get kids engaged with space with the ESA Kids app, now available for download on iOS and Android devices! The ESA Kids app features a set of carefully crafted games for kids to learn about space while having fun. Simple yet engaging, the app is suitable for a variety of age ranges and is available in 14 languages! Introduce the tiny explorers to space and Paxi with colouring, matching, and memory games. Challenge the older pioneers with specific missions to build spacecraft, land on different planets and moons, and clean up space debris. Get the whole family together for a round of space trivia. Prefer to play the games on a computer? No problem! Find them on the ESA Kids website. Get ready to explore the Solar System with Paxi!www.esa.int
The smallest known main-sequence star in the Milky Way galaxy is a real pixie of a thing.www.sciencealert.com
#Everyday #Astronaut[...]this year is extra important and impactful because...
frankly in general, 2020 sucked..
for all of us.[...]
Gestern hat die Europäische Raumfahrtagentur ESA bekannt gegeben, dass der deutsche Astronaut Matthias Maurer im Herbst 2021 das erste Mal ins All fliegen wird. Dort wird er ein halbes Jahr auf der…
The very first sensor to be used by ESA’s Hera asteroid mission for planetary defence is currently being manufactured in Ireland. A gyroscope unit manufactured by Dublin-based InnaLabs will track the spacecraft’s spin rate as it tumbles away from its Ariane 6 launcher following its 2024 liftoff, allowing it to safely orient its solar panels to the Sun and come to life.www.esa.int
The container with material from a space rock called Ryugu parachuted down near Woomera in South Australia on Saturday evening (GMT).https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-55201662
A recovery team in Australia found the spacecraft lying on the sandy ground, with its parachute draped over a bush.
The samples were originally collected by the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2.
A team retrieves a capsule carrying the first significant quantities of rock from an asteroid.www.bbc.co.uk
#Space #2020SO #Surveyor2 #SpaceObjectVintage NASA space junk from 1966 moon mission just whizzed by Earth. | Space
https://www.space.com/vintage-nasa-space-junk-2020-so-surveyor-2-close-flyby
A misunderstood piece of space junk whizzed by Earth Tuesday (Dec. 1), but don't worry, it's just part of an old moon mission's rocket.
The object, nicknamed 2020 SO, was once thought to be an asteroid. But after its (re)discovery by the PAN-STARRS survey telescope, astronomers realized the mystery object's orbit didn't make sense for a rocky or icy world.
"We followed it quite a bit for the very first few days, once there was a possibility for it to be natural," Marco Michelli, an astronomer at the European Space Agency's Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre, said in a statement.
But after a couple of weeks measuring its position, Michelli and his team realized the object had to be artificial. It was showing a lot of changes in its orbit due to the ongoing pressure of the solar wind, which sends particles streaming across the solar system. "It was too light to have formed naturally."
Astronomers eventually concluded the orbit matched the upper stage of the rocket for NASA's failed Surveyor 2 lander that was supposed to land on the moon in 1966. However, the mission failed after the rocket overshot the moon, and the rocket drifted into orbit around the sun.
Related: The strange story of 2020 SO: How an asteroid turned into rocket junk and the NASA scientist who figured it out
This image released by the European Space Agency shows a view of the object 2020 SO (moving dot) in the night sky as seen from a telescope. Once thought to be an asteroid, 2020 SO is actually a spent booster from NASA's Surveyor 2 moon mission launch in 1966.
This image released by the European Space Agency shows a view of the object 2020 SO (moving dot) in the night sky as seen from a telescope. Once thought to be an asteroid, 2020 SO is actually a spent booster from NASA's Surveyor 2 moon mission launch in 1966. (Image credit: ESA)
So why did the rocket show up now? The theory is the rocket was temporarily caught in Earth's gravity and will soon fly away from our planet again.
In the ongoing search for near-Earth asteroids, the rocket shows a bit of a blind spot in the zones where telescope surveys typically search, another ESA official added.
"In some ways it has been and is hiding in the boundary between near-Earth object and space debris searches, a search region where there are very few objects distributed over a large volume of space" Tim Flohrer, head of ESA's space debris office, said in the same statement.
"The life of this rocket part so far has similarities to an object called WT1190F, a small temporary satellite of Earth thought to be debris from the 1998 Lunar Prospector mission, that impacted in 2015. It is still to be assessed if this newly rediscovered object could return and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere one day."
It's no asteroid and the rediscovery shows how easy it is to lose stuff in space.www.space.com